The latest Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia are more than another flare-up in Yemen\u2019s unresolved war. They test the de-escalation that has largely held since 2022 and the credibility of the security arrangements built around it. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was therefore right to condemn the attacks unequivocally and reaffirm Pakistan\u2019s support for Saudi sovereignty, territorial integrity and security.
\nThat support now carries greater strategic meaning, especially in the light of Pakistan-Saudi Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (signed last September), which declares aggression against one is an aggression against both, and is intended to strengthen joint deterrence. The task before those at the helm of affairs is to preserve deterrence without allowing ambiguity to become a pathway to uncontrolled escalation.
\nIslamabad\u2019s position offers a useful framework. It has combined firm solidarity with Riyadh with support for Yemen\u2019s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, while calling for an inclusive, Yemeni-led and UN-facilitated political settlement. History also suggests that military superiority alone cannot reconstruct Yemen\u2019s fractured political order. Condemning the Houthis does not require abandoning the Yemeni people to another open-ended cycle of war.
\nThis distinction matters because the renewed confrontation followed an attack by Yemen\u2019s internationally recognised government on Sanaa airport, which it said was intended to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing outside approved procedures. Where divided sovereignty and regional rivalries overlap, miscalculation can travel faster than diplomacy.
\nPakistan should neither blur responsibility for the missile attacks nor treat military escalation as the only proof of alliance credibility.
\nSaudi security is closely connected to Pakistan\u2019s own economic interests. No qualms about that. Disruption in the Gulf or Red Sea is transmitted through oil prices and remittances. Using that extension, stability in the kingdom is far more than an abstract foreign-policy preference as it forms part of Pakistan\u2019s wider economic security.
\nFurthermore, Field Marshal Asim Munir\u2019s meetings in Ankara with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkiye\u2019s military leadership underscore that Pakistan is not placing its strategic future inside a single bilateral relationship. The greater significance lies in Pakistan\u2019s effort to construct a wider network of defence partnerships, deepen military interoperability and expand its diplomatic room for manoeuvre in an increasingly fragmented security order. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The latest Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia are more than another flare-up in Yemen\u2019s unresolved war. They test the de-escalation that has largely held since 2022 and the credibility of the security arrangements built around it. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was therefore right to condemn the attacks unequivocally and reaffirm Pakistan\u2019s support for Saudi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n